Effects Of Textbooks On Students Grades

The costs of the textbooks can have a negative effect on students grades, as well as on their wallets. 65 percent of students polled in a U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) survey had decided against buying a textbook for a class because it was too expensive, and 94 percent of those students felt that it would negatively impact on their grade. So, not only are these students not buying an expensive book, but they are doing it with the full knowledge that it may cause them to fail their course. In the same group of students, nearly half of them replied that they had passed on taking a course due to the fact that the book was as expensive as it was.

Alternatives

Despite the cost of textbooks becoming as high as they are, there are always alternatives to purchasing new textbooks. As long as there has not been a new edition of a textbook release or slated to be released a student can buy a used book. Books can be rented, either through a retailer or through a rental system on a college campus, or the college can elect to use open textbooks. Many students sell the books they no longer need back to campus bookstores at the end of each semester, if there is not a new edition coming out these books will be resold as used, the price varies from the shape of the book and the cost of a new copy of the same. However if a new edition is scheduled for release the older books cannot be sold back to the bookstore, eliminating the option of buying a used book. As an